Food warming ovens for holding and warming food items and for keeping prepared foods at elevated temperatures while in inventory prior to sale at restaurants, food counters, cafeterias, etc. are known. Such food warming ovens typically include one or more shelves for supporting prepared items of food (e.g., hamburgers, French fries, casseroles, etc.), and are capable of generating heat for warming the items supported by each shelf. A bottom heat source typically warms the food items from beneath using conducted heat. A top heat source warms the food items from overhead using heat lamps or infrared heat sources suspended above the food items using an appropriate overhead structure. The food items may also be warmed by convected heat from a warm stream of air aimed at the items.
Such food warming ovens, however, have a significant drawback. The user of such a food warming oven (i.e., the food service customer) has reduced visibility of any food items placed on a lower holding surface of the oven. The shelf or shelves of such known food warming ovens, which are typically made of a metal, partially or completely block the user's view of food items placed on lower shelves or lower food holding surfaces. This can require the user to stoop or bend to fully view food items placed on the lower holding surfaces or shelves, even when no food items are actually present on the upper holding surfaces. This configuration tends to make the food items on the lower holding surfaces or shelves less desirable than the food items placed on an upper shelf in full view of the user. This configuration also makes monitoring and maintaining the condition of the food items placed on lower holding surfaces more difficult due to the restricted view of these food items.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a food warming oven including at least one transparent heating shelf that overcomes these and other disadvantages. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a food warming oven with at least one transparent heating shelf that maximizes the visibility of even those food items placed beneath that shelf. It would also be advantageous to provide a food warming oven including a transparent shelf capable of supporting and heating food items. The use of one or more transparent heating shelves would allow food items placed on lower holding surfaces or shelves to be more visible and desirable to the user or prospective consumer, and be more easily monitored and maintained by the food service personnel. Further, it would be advantageous to provide a heat source of sufficient power capacity to warm food items and maintain such items at elevated temperatures by distributing heat across a transparent shelf. It would be advantageous to provide a heat source for a food warming oven having a relatively simple structure with no moving parts for improved reliability and maintainability.